Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Living Without Lies Might Make You Healthier

Telling
the truth when tempted to lie can significantly improve a person’s mental and
physical health, according to a “Science of Honesty” study presented at the
recent American Psychological Association’s 120th Annual Convention.

“Recent
evidence indicates that Americans average about 11 lies per week. We wanted to
find out if living more honestly can actually cause better health,” said lead
author Anita E. Kelly, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Notre
Dame. “We found that the participants could purposefully and dramatically reduce
their everyday lies, and that in turn was associated with significantly
improved health.”

Kelly
and co-author Lijuan Wang, PhD, also of Notre Dame, conducted the honesty
experiment over 10 weeks with a sample of 110 people, of whom 34 percent were
adults in the community and 66 percent were college students. They ranged in
age from 18 to 71 years, with an average age of 31. The just-completed study
has not yet undergone peer review and has yet to be published.

Approximately
half the participants were instructed to stop telling major and minor lies for
the 10 weeks. The other half served as a control group that received no special
instructions about lying.

Both
groups came to the laboratory each week to complete health and relationship
measures and to take a polygraph test assessing the number of major and white
lies they had told that week.

Those
who told fewer lies in each group experienced fewer mental health complaints
and improved physical health, as well as closer interpersonal relationships,
and after five weeks of honest effort reported seeing themselves in a more
truthful light.

So,
for better health, it appears that honesty is, indeed, the best policy.

###

The above story
is based on the August 4, 2012 news release by the American Psychological
Association.

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